The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1887-10-06
When Your Father Went TO War.
(By James Newton Mathe,cs, Mason, Ill., }

A rompiug little rowdy, running riot
ous ana wild,
In the mapls-shaded pasture, wher
our cottage used to stand.
And we owned q timbered forty o
the richest river land
Yes, owned it--every inch OF it-b.
iabor's hard decree.
And none, we thought, In all th'
world were happier than we.
Our castle browsed the Summer hills
amid the blue grass deep.
And all the shady bottom lands were
snowy with sheep;
Twas like a tale of fairy lore, the lf'
that We lived. then.
When was barely twentyssix, ant
you were only ten;
Love brought us peace and comfort
till there rose an evil star,
Tn the summertime Of plenty, when
vour father went to war.
IL.
All. Jennie, I remember well the day,
twas late In June,
Your father he came riding home
from town one afternoon,
And his face was pale and haggard ms
he reached the door and threw
One arm around me, daughter, while
he laid one hand on you;
And as my senses faltersd, and reel-
cd In his embrace,
Tread the fearful meaning that was
written in his face
I felt Il In the bounding blood that
beat against my breast,
Ineeded not spoken word,-too
well l knew the rest
And all that night in dreams 1 heard
the tramp of Of marching feet,
And far away saw the flags grow
DINNER down the street
Twas long agol but o, my heart has
not outgrown the scar
Gods finger put upon lit, when your
father went to war.
IL.
Tnen you anu Wo'e icio oio"'' w
tried a year or 80,
BY hiring help, to scrimp along, but
couldn't mako 1t go;
The Spring floods swept away the
corn, the drouth Of Summer dried
The grasses on the uplands, and we
had no crops beside;
So We parted with tho cattle that we
could no longer keep,
We sold the only team We had and
traded of the sheep;
And when tho Winds OF Autumn shook
the pipes about the caves,
And In the woodland hollows piled the
brown October leaves.
When tho hazel-nuts were ripening in
the old familiar copse,
And the wild geese wedging south~
ward, far above the maple tops,
We looked the dear old farm house up
and closed the pasture bar,
Aud moved into the village, when
your father went to war.
w.
Then Winter came-a dreary tine-a
night OF hopes and fears,
On every hand the widows wept, and
fell the mothers tears
A reign of blood and ruin! Every day
some passing train
Brought back a load of mangled men
brought back the cofflned Sian;
And Jennie, o, my Jennie, ere the
SHOWS of Winter passed,
They bore your father back to us
they brought him home at last;
They sent him from the frozen hills,
beside the Tennessee,
Borne down amidst the battle, where
the bravest loved to be;
They sent him back a ruined man for
life, alas. my child
turned away in agony, l raved as
one grown wild,
But why recall the story nowf The
years have drifted far.
And we've got used to trouble since
your father went to war.
v.
The times have changed. We, too, have
changed. Tonightthe blue and gray
Sit round their fires, with lighted pipes
and puff their hates away
Sit,spinniug yarns around their camps
until the drowsy stars
Put out their light and wave good
night" across the twilight's bars.
Although my heart be broken, and
although my hair be white,
And though the years have brought
me but disaster In their fight,
am wicket in my weakness, am
cruel to complain,
When yonder patient sufferer sits
smiling Mt his pain,-
Sits grooming In the Autum moon the
the ballads made to praise
The luster Of his daring In the old he
roic days
Sits dreaming, Jennie, dreaming, OF
the battlefields that are
The glory OF the ages, since your faith
or went to war.
vi.
A little while-it won't be long, until
the soldiers come
And bear away their comrade to the
=, dead march Of the drum,
10 the green hills over yonder, where
eternal tents are spread,
AND no pension bills are vetoed in the
domains of the dead,
where justice Is no jester. and where
glory countersigns
Nhe mnster-rolls OF freedom as the
century declines.